Volume 54 - Article 29 | Pages 935–972  

Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain

By Sergi Vidal, Danilo Bolano, Mariona Lozano

Abstract

Background: Fertility in Spain has declined and shifted to later ages alongside diversification of family formation, raising questions about how partnership life courses shape completed fertility by late reproductive age.

Objective: We aim to assess how key features of partnership trajectories – timing, duration, and sequencing – relate to motherhood and parity by age 41 among women in contemporary Spain, and whether associations differ by education.

Methods: We analyze 7,656 women, born 1962–1977, in the Spanish Fertility Survey (2018). A feature-selection approach identifies salient aspects of union histories (e.g., postponement or absence of union, stability, cohabitation, higher-order unions) associated with (1) entry into motherhood and (2) progression to higher-order births by age 41, with results stratified by educational attainment.

Results: Delayed or foregone union formation during the reproductive years is strongly associated with lower fertility, particularly a lower likelihood of entering motherhood. Stable marriage is consistently linked to higher probabilities of both becoming a mother and progressing to higher-order births. Cohabitation and post-separation trajectories show more nuanced and generally weaker associations with fertility in these cohorts. Associations between partnership status at later reproductive ages and fertility outcomes are more pronounced among highly educated women.

Conclusions: Partnership life courses are central to understanding low and late fertility in Spain, and our results shed light on how traditional and emerging partnership dynamics jointly shape fertility outcomes by late reproductive ages.

Contribution: We move beyond a narrow event-based focus to provide an integrated, trajectory-based account of how partnership timing, duration, and sequencing relate to motherhood and parity in a sustained low-fertility setting, documenting educational differences in these associations.

Author’s Affiliation

• Sergi Vidal - Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED), Spain EMAIL
• Danilo Bolano - Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy EMAIL
• Mariona Lozano - Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED), Spain EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Lowest low fertility in Spain: Insights from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey
Volume 51 - Article 19

Pathways and obstacles to parenthood among women in same-sex couples in Spain
Volume 50 - Article 35

Advanced or postponed motherhood? Migrants’ and natives’ gap between ideal and actual age at first birth in Spain
Volume 49 - Article 22

Union formation under conditions of uncertainty: The objective and subjective sides of employment uncertainty
Volume 45 - Article 5

When partners’ disagreement prevents childbearing: A couple-level analysis in Australia
Volume 44 - Article 33

Life after death: Widowhood and volunteering gendered pathways among older adults
Volume 43 - Article 21

Separation, divorce, and housing tenure: A cross-country comparison
Volume 41 - Article 39

Introduction to the special collection on spatial mobility, family dynamics, and gender relations
Volume 41 - Article 21

Changes in gender role attitudes following couples' residential relocations
Volume 40 - Article 39

Family migration in a cross-national perspective: The importance of institutional and cultural context
Volume 36 - Article 10

My house or our home? Transitions into sole home ownership in British couples
Volume 35 - Article 6

Non-standard work schedules, gender, and parental stress
Volume 34 - Article 9

Similar articles in Demographic Research

Harmonised fertility histories in four British longitudinal cohort studies
Volume 54 - Article 18    | Keywords: cohort studies, fertility, harmonised data, United Kingdom

A flexible model for reconstructing education-specific fertility rates: The case of sub-Saharan Africa
Volume 54 - Article 12    | Keywords: Bayesian demography, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), education, fertility, fertility rates, sub-Saharan Africa

Learning and reproductive health: Do early cognitive skills contribute to better sexual and reproductive health outcomes among adolescents in Ethiopia?
Volume 54 - Article 7    | Keywords: adolescence, education, education, Ethiopia, fertility, sub-Saharan Africa

Fewer children, better futures: How war shapes family choices
Volume 53 - Article 35    | Keywords: childrearing, infant mortality, Spain, war

Childhood left-behind experiences and premarital cohabitation: Evidence from China
Volume 53 - Article 30    | Keywords: China, China Family Panel Studies, left-behind children, life course, premarital cohabitation